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tascabili dell’ambiente
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EStà – Economia e Sostenibilità
food and the cities
food policies for sustainable cities
by Andrea Calori and Andrea Magarini infographics: Andrea Magarini in partnership with: Comune di Milano, Fondazione Cariplo publisher: Edizioni Ambiente srl www.edizioniambiente.it graphics: GrafCo3 Milano cover image: designed by GrafCo3 Milano The authors would like to thank for the valuable advices and contributions Andrea Di Stefano, Andrea Vecci, Massimiliano Lepratti, Francesca Federici, Marta Maggi, Chiara Pirovano and Alessandra Ballerio © 2015, Edizioni Ambiente via Natale Battaglia 10, 20127 Milano tel. 02 45487277, fax 02 45487333 All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher. ISBN 978-88-6627-178-9 Printed in September 2015 by GECA S.r.l., San Giuliano Milanese (MI) Printed in Italy This book has been printed on FSC certified paper the websites of edizioni ambiente: www.edizioniambiente.it www.reteambiente.it www.nextville.it www.puntosostenibile.it www.freebookambiente.it follow us online at: Facebook/EdizioniAmbiente Twitter.com/EdAmbiente
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EStà – Economia e Sostenibilità
food and the cities Food Policies for Sustainable Cities by Andrea Calori and Andrea Magarini
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contents
introduction By Giuliano Pisapia, Mayor of Milan
9
preface By Giuseppe Guzzetti, President of the Fondazione Cariplo
11
13 1. food: keystone of cities’ sustainability and resiliency By Andrea Calori 13 Prologue: cities and an urbanizing world Food as keystone to the sustainability of development 19 The global food economy and the resiliency 21 of local urban ecosystems The green revolution: the agricultural 23 side of world urbanization The connection between urban and rural: 25 a critical juncture for sustainability Urban agriculture: global idea, local examples 29 From practice to policy 31 The turn of the millennium: cities take charge 35 Urban food policies and strategies 38
2. an overview of urban food policies 41 By Andrea Calori, Andrea Magarini The paradoxes and urban cultures at the root of policy 41 The subject and content of urban food policies 45 Commonly recurring themes 46 Examples from around the world 55 Studying and assessing cities’ food systems 90 Examples of studies and assessments 91 of urban food systems
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3. guidelines for governance of urban food systems in sustainable cities By Andrea Calori What we know and what we’ve learned Food as urban infrastructure Integration and sustainability Urban food needs From needs to policies Articulating systemic knowledge Building shared consensus The public actor Technical assistance New tasks and institutional actors
99 99 101 105 109 113 117 120 124 126 128
figures on paradigmatic cases By Andrea Magarini Urban food policies in the world Bristol Ghent London Melbourne Milan New York San Francisco Toronto Vancouver
134 140 144 148 152 156 160 164 168 172
references
177
about the authors
187
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EStà – Economia e Sostenibilità is a non-profit research center that believes in a robust, systematic approach to sustainability, collaborating with government agencies, research centers, economic groups, and actors at the local, national, and international level. EStà works to foster development guided by principles of sustainability, resilience, and circular economies. Every aspect is considered in its full complexity through the drafting of studies and scenarios for change, as well as support for their practical implementation. EStà works by cultivating relationships between actors, employing approaches and methods emphasizing research, action, and active participation by all actors, with the goal of constructing the basis for shared knowledge and action. EStà rejects simplistic approaches to sustainability, insisting on the interdependence of all social, economic, and environmental aspects. EStà is composed of associates, collaborators, and members of its scientific committee, who belong to various fields of study and knowledge: economics, the environment, regional planning, industry, social entrepreneurship, methods of democratic participation, education, and communications. EStà – Economia e Sostenibilità Via Cuccagna 2/4 20135 Milan [MI] – Italy info@assesta.it – www.assesta.it
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introduction
By Giuliano Pisapia, Mayor of Milan
Today, over half the world’s population lives in a city. In 2050, forecasts estimate this figure will include 70% of the Earth’s inhabitants. Starting now, the great metropolises of the future face critical challenges: How to encourage sustainable, equitable development? How to guarantee decent homes and efficient public services? But above all, how to ensure everyone has sufficient access to food without despoiling our planet’s finite resources? The answers can only come from metropolitan areas themselves. In a globalized world of increasingly networked mega-cities, great revolutions begin at the local level. Urban governments can bring together and guide the other actors in play, bringing together engaged citizens and nonprofits, businesses, and other institutions. Cities must take the lead to enact concrete policy, particularly with regard to food systems, given the fundamental role that food plays in the life of a municipality, as this book demonstrates. With these considerations in mind, in this year of Expo 2015 dedicated to the theme “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life,” the City of Milan has challenged other major cities around the world to join us in the Urban Food Policy Pact, an international protocol to be signed in October 2015 as one of the greatest legacies of the Universal Exposition.
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10
food and the cities
For months, Milan has worked with dozens of other cities from the global North and South, together with experts, foundations, and international organizations, to draft a document including policy recommendations and concrete commitments. The goal is to create a network of smart cities that pledge to work to transform their approach to food issues through the exchange of best practices, ideas, suggestions, and solutions. For its part, Milan, in conjunction with the Fondazione Cariplo, has begun a process to compose its own new Food Policy, a strategic document that will guide the city on food-related issues for the next several years. This project has been refined though a participatory process that has collected the opinions and ideas of NGOs, businesses, start-ups, experts, and a great many residents on how to tackle issues such as the fight to minimize waste, increase accessibility to food, and improve food education. Yet another ideal, but also concrete, legacy of Expo 2015.
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preface
By Giuseppe Guzzetti, President of the Fondazione Cariplo
For 25 years, Fondazione Cariplo has pursued philanthropic ventures with great passion. Today, it concentrates its efforts on initiatives that address issues affecting youth, the community, and individual wellness. Food cuts across all these themes. In this volume, you will find the story of just one part of the research that has been conducted as part of a much larger project by the Fondazione Cariplo and the City of Milan to create a Milan Food Policy. The basic idea is that we can feed people not just in the material sense (wherever necessary, with poverty increasingly widespread, both in Italy and throughout the world), but rather nourish them with care for the growth of the whole person, and thus with a particular focus on wellness, on their well being. This means thinking of others – by reducing waste, for example. It also means thinking of ourselves, by paying attention to what we eat. Philanthropic organizations, and the Fondazione Cariplo in particular, are committed to supporting initiatives and projects that address these themes. A recent study presented in Milan by the Global Alliance for Food (which includes 20 foundations from around the world, including Cariplo) shows that every year, philanthropic organizations provide $655 million worldwide for projects in this sector. This is a commitment that the scientific community cannot do without.
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food and the cities
But philanthropy today makes a difference not simply by distributing economic resources, but also and especially by fostering innovation; the attention paid in recent months to food-related issues also provides an opportunity to demonstrate foundations’ contributions to changing agro-food systems in the direction of greater sustainability, security, and equity. Fondazione Cariplo is committed to support for scientific research as a driver of the innovation required to transform agrofood systems toward greater sustainability. Our commitment in this realm is significant, and also includes promoting collaboration with other philanthropic ventures nationally and internationally, through its various partnerships with the Fondation Agropolis, offering grants for research on the farming of rice and cereals. In Italy, Fondazione Cariplo began the Progetto Ager in 2007, coordinating a partnership of 13 Italian foundations to support research in sectors that represent the best of Italian food and agriculture: from the farming of grains to the growing of fruit and vegetables, from viticulture to animal husbandry. Ager has allocated more than ₏25 million in resources to 16 projects that involve more than 46 universities and research institutes across the country. The second edition of the project was just launched in collaboration with another 9 Italian foundations, making available ₏7 million for research in 4 new areas: aquaculture, mountain agriculture, olives and oils, and dairy products. Ager 2 will further privilege themes of food security and environmental sustainability. For all of us, philanthropy means supporting a project with passion. Helping it grow strong, until it can bear its fruits for the benefit of all. For when it comes to food and agriculture, picturing fruit ready for the harvest simply comes naturally...
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1. food: keystone of cities’ sustainability and resiliency By Andrea Calori
prologue: cities and an urbanizing world Since 2007, the world’s urban population has numerically surpassed those who live in rural areas: a symbolic watershed that calls attention to processes of urbanization that, though assuming different forms and dynamics in different geographical regions, are accelerating with ever-increasing speed. But beyond this symbolic aspect, which in recent years has spurred renewed interest and discussion, these processes represent only the most recent phase of a much longer trend that characterizes all of modernity. In fact, the very idea of modernity itself is “urban,” because it is based upon a culture that tends to transform “non urban” societies and modes of production in order to serve the needs of cities – or rather, to serve the needs of the urbanized world. World urbanization is founded upon an expansion of urban systems that is as much cultural and symbolic as it is physical, and that pervades every aspect of society and the economy as well as their relationship with the environment. The current situation weighs heavily upon the many delicate balances underlying the
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food and the cities
30 megacities in the world (> 10 million inhabitants)
Moscow
270
Beijing
277
S達o Paulo
284
Mexico City
286
Boston
289
San Francisco Philadelphia
303 322
Dallas
362
Randstand
366
Milan
367
Houston
375
Washington
380
Osaka Reno Chicago Los Angeles Paris London New York
398 483 511 700 736 925 1,210
Tokyo
1,460
Comparison of the GDP (billion $) of cities and nations
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1. food: keystone of cities’ sustainability and resiliency
Distribution of GDP (billion $) within cities
15
62%
38%
13%
23 megacities (+ 10 mln)
45 large cities (5-10 mln)
Tokyo 1,460 billion $ Canada 1,573 billion $
19%
18%
11%
143 midsize (2-5 mln)
389 small Other cities and (200,000-2 mln) rural areas
Washington 380 billion $ South Africa 384 billion $
London 925 billion $ Indonesia 878 billion$
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Milan 367 billion $
Colombia 368 billion $
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food and the cities
development model that characterizes both the West and the nations most greatly influenced by it. The fate of nations rests in large measure on our ability to govern the social, economic, and ecosystemic equilibria of urban areas. A city is an ecosystem that, by its very nature, depends on other areas to acquire what it needs (energy, water, soil, food, etc.) and to get rid of what it has not fully metabolized (waste, scrap, emissions, etc.). The more that a city’s dependence on external resources grows, the more difficult it is to manage this balance; and this dynamic only grows more complex as the physical distance between these resources and the city itself grows wider, or as the urban area itself becomes more vast and complex. In its most recent incarnation, world urbanization has become intertwined with the paradigms of globalization, giving rise to forms of economic organization on a planetary scale. As many have noted, the novelty of the last few decades lies not in the fact that goods are being moved from one continent to another – something that has always taken place, since antiquity – but in the trend toward a single, uniform organization of the economic system, and the primary importance assumed by finance capital in terms of production and the real economy. In an apparent paradox, the dematerialization of the economy associated with the triumph of the financial over the productive has been accompanied by a hypertrophy of the structures necessary for the perpetuation and growth of this way of thinking about the economy and development. In an urbanizing world, vast areas of the planet are dedicated to the production of goods that are consumed exclusively elsewhere – typically in urban areas, where a greater proportion of global wealth is concentrated. In the same way, a significant amount of capital, energy, and space is spent on logistics, infrastructure, and everything else re-
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1. food: keystone of cities’ sustainability and resiliency
17
quired to guarantee the smooth functioning of this system, based on the rapid exchange of goods on a global scale. This complex form of organization works to ensure the input and output of materials and energy, especially in those parts of the planet where the majority of its population is gathered: its most densely populated regions, tremendous metropolitan areas that hold 10 or 20 million people, including several huge and rapidly growing Chinese agglomerations that have surpassed 30 million inhabitants. Shanghai has more than 20 million residents, while Chongqing, also in China, is a conurbation that will soon reach 40 million. Settlements like these are living organisms that cannot entirely be reduced to the traditional definition of the term city, and they certainly require different instruments and forms of study compared to what might suffice for Milan, Paris, or San Francisco, for example. Nevertheless, they lay at one extreme of an ongoing trend toward urban concentration that has spread around the world, and that clearly – and dramatically, in many cases – raises difficult question about balancing resources as well as the future of the city. In fact, settlements of this type demonstrate in the most extreme way imaginable the dependence of urbanized areas on resources that frequently reside very, very far away from them, spread out all around the world. This is, then, a question of a general model of development, and not just one of urban planning or governance. World urbanization also shapes the imbalances between global wealth production as measured in GDP and the many facets of well-being, sustainability, and the resilience of social and environmental systems against external shocks. According to the United Nations, cities generate more than 80% of global GDP; the great urban areas clustered in the most de-
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food and the cities
veloped areas of the world truly are economic giants. The econ omy of Tokyo is comparable to that of Canada, London to Indonesia, Milan to Colombia, Washington DC to South Africa. Faced with these undeniable facts, in recent years there have been multiple studies on the resiliency of large urban areas in connection with the increase in social tensions produced by mass migrations, the imbalance between social conditions and economic trends, or natural disasters. The most interesting thing about these studies is that the ever increasing growth of the great urban agglomerations brings with it many unknowns in terms of our ability to govern or shape the dynamics associated with this kind of growth. In recent decades, in fact, there have been an increasing number of critical situations generated by a combination of social, economic, and environmental factors that, while not completely and directly attributable to individual cities, nevertheless demonstrate the fragility of urban systems and everything connected to them. Among the many different cases involving this contrast between the wealth and fragility of cities associated with the complex relationship of global development models and specific local contexts, we might cite the 2010 bread riots that unleashed the socalled Arab Spring in the cities of Mediterranean Africa. Or the waves of migration between city and country generated by the “tortilla crisis� that struck Mexico in 2007. Even more shocking is the decline of a city like Detroit, which for a whole century stood as the capital and global symbol of a car culture that conquered the world, only to implode following paradigm shifts in production and organization within the international automobile industry. Finally, the growing number and intensity of natural disasters that have struck an increasing number of urban areas in the North and the global South – from Hurricane
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figures on paradigmatic cases By Andrea Magarini
The following pages contain a series of figures that summarize the primary structural elements and provide an overview of processes to define and implement several examples of urban food policies. The cases selected are drawn exclusively from European and North American cities, along with Melbourne, which though in Australia shares many characteristics in common with metropolitan areas throughout North America. These cities are among the more “mature” examples in terms of the development of their urban food policies, with several years’ experience in the management of such initiatives. The figures show how the primary actions related to the creation of a food policy in each city evolved over time, generally coinciding with the publication of key documents (such as declarations of principles, assessment reports, lists of projects, etc.) or public deliberations on texts to determine a city’s policy choices (such as strategy documents, action plans, etc.). The figures synthesize several of the key recurring phenomena discussed in the third section of the book, which describes certain aspects of governance (public decision-making, the role of technical-scientific actors, and civil society), the geographic scalability of the process, and the drafting of documents to outline the content of policy.
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URBAN FOOD POLICIES IN THE WORLD This figures is a summary of significant experiences of urban food policies that have been analysed within Milan Food Policy
HOW SHOULD YOU READ IT? PROJECTS Cities that have promoted sectorial events
ASSESSMENT Cities that have organised initiatives to analyse and evaluate the urban food system
POLICY/STRATEGY Cities that have triggered integrated policies or general strategies
COUNCIL Cities that have defined an institutional mandate for a subject with the aim to support, implement and monitor the effects of urban food initiatives.
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S
urban food policies in the world
Portland
Austin
Washington
Los Angeles
Toronto
New Orleans
Vancouver
Boston
Houston
Seattle
New York
Philadelphia
San Francisco
Chicago
MedellĂn
Caracas
Guatemala City
Bogota
Buenos Aires
San Paolo
Mexico City
Curitiba
Santiago
Lima
Rio De Janeiro
Belo Horizonte
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Paris
Gent
Malmรถ
London
Basel
Stockholm
Rotterdam
Berlin
Copenhagen
Amsterdam
Frankfurt
Turin
Bristol
Oslo
Rome
Madrid
Addis Abeba
Istanbul
Barcelona
Nairobi
Tel Aviv
Lagos
Dar Es Salaam
Cairo
Niamey
Johannesburg
Dakar
Cape Town
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